Monday, March 14, 2011

Pete and Bridget came over on the weekend and finished off the side gate! Pics are below, as well as some pictures of the blinds. Today the construction manager and our tiler came over to look at the ensuite shower base which wasn't draining properly. In the end the CM decided to take off all the tiles, screed the base again (ie change the levels so it drains toward the drain faster) and then tile it again. He said he was a bit concerned about water draining so slowly up on the second floor, presumably it increases the chances of it escaping into the walls or floor.

Fence under construction

Fence under construction (gate is sitting behind fence panel)

Fence complete!

Gate from the front...

And from the back.

Somehow we have managed to not kill this tree.

New venetians in the computer room.

Vertical blinds for the balcony door in the master bedroom.

Panel glides in the family room (these are the ones that were not properly fixed to the wall)

Our new site supervisor, in uniform. Her assistant is by the letterbox, taste testing the water for E Coli.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

We've had quite a busy week! First I got a call from our site supervisor, and then from his construction manager who came around on Tuesday to check on what needs fixing. And we had people coming around Tuesday and Wednesday fixing all the plaster and paint issues, installing external vents to the rangehood and powder room, and fixing broken tiles. They did a pretty good job - you can't even see where the old downlight holes in the ensuite were, or where the broken plaster was behind the rangehood.

Pretty much everything has had a satisfactory outcome now except for two things - the construction manager said that the small diameter connected on the U bend in the laundry is suitable for connecting the laundry machine water waste on to, but the Bunnings plumber says it's too small. But if it's a matter of adding another connector at the right height we may be able to DIY. And the construction manager was not keen on clearing the buried building waste (bricks, tiles, etc) in the backyard. He was hinting that all he can do is send someone to clear what's visible on the surface, so I told him that most of the work is in actually digging the stuff up.

We also had half our blinds installed on wednesday - lots of venetians for upstairs, as well as a panel glide for the back bi-part sliding door, and a vertical strip blind on the balcony door. The installation (by Home Outlet) was good overall except the guy was a bit rushed, and he botched the sliding door blinds. Rather than removing the blinds from the holders and screwing them in properly he put the screws in angled upwards, and they went into the space behind the plaster instead of into the house frame, so the whole architrave was hanging precariously with a 10mm gap between it and the wall. I put some extra screws in at the right angle and it's now attached solidly. Can't complain about the price though. The kids have been playing hide and seek in the panel glides all evening, and Graham has been methodically opening and closing every venetian in the whole house. He'll make a good scientist or engineer.

Pictures soon! We also have half a fence at the side of the house installed by Pete, with the gate going in soon. The gate is around 35 kg so he's looking for some stronger hinges to make sure it's all solid.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Our site supervisor has been found! Thankyou to all of you who helped search for him. He called me today and said that he has indeed got a new baby girl, and he is now back at work again. I also got a call from his construction manager, and various other people too. So it looks like things are back on track.

The other thing we have been working on is the drain at the back of the house. It is slowly taking shape. We're almost ready to begin on paving parts of it.

Front landscaping

More front landscaping. Since then we have some new plants under the window, and some more rocks.

Drainage at the back. That pit in the corner has been connected all the way down to the stormwater pipes, which was rather tricky to do.

Drain looking the other way. There's now a lot of crushed rock around these drains, getting ready for paving. On the left will go some treated pine sleepers to make a mini retaining wall.

Metricon still haven't made our shelves for this unit, so I used some scraps from the WIR draw construction to make some myself. They are not quite deep enough so there is a bit of a gap at the back of each.